Structural violence in much more than neoliberal times: the case of slum redevelopment in Mumbai

Abstract

This paper examines the concept of structural violence through the lens of slum redevelopment policies in Mumbai. While slum redevelopment is often seen as a welfare policy that gives free houses to slum dwellers, the article argues that it is actually a form of ongoing structural violence that began as a scheme, but over time, has emerged as a regime of socio- spatial control that perpetuates dependence on speculative markets and creates new forms of exclusion. Additionally, the regime based on the unlocking of land values represents a violent social order that slowly changes the narrative and practices of informal settling and strikes at the heart of the political agency and voice of the basti residents. While the outcomes of this order are devastating, they are perpetuated through a facade of rehabilitation and a delegitimization of occupancy urbanism.